


The Macaron Interlude

by xxx_mlggamer_xxx



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: (as if a DM is narrating I guess), Angst, Candlenights, Elderflower Macarons, Gen, POV Second Person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-22
Updated: 2018-02-22
Packaged: 2019-03-22 13:50:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13765476
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xxx_mlggamer_xxx/pseuds/xxx_mlggamer_xxx
Summary: “Would you like any help making your cookies?”“Nice try, homie. Taako’s takin’ this one to the grave.”“I'll get that recipe from you someday, Taako.”Lucretia, Taako, and the Starblaster's last Candlenights.





	The Macaron Interlude

You’re tossing, and turning, and Fischer’s tank is glowing, and even though it's never bothered you before, you just can’t get to sleep. So you put on some slippers and make your way down to the Starblaster’s kitchen to get a drink of water.

You see a dim light as you walk through the short hallway from your room, and you aren’t surprised that someone else is awake despite it being the middle of the night, because you’ve lived with these people for 64 years. Nothing about them surprises you anymore.

It’s Taako, and he’s pulling something out of the oven, and _hot-diggity-shit_ that smells amazing. And he’s not startled by your approach because maybe he isn’t surprised by any of you anymore, either.

Or maybe it’s just those giant elven ears of his.  

[Taako was hard to figure out at first. He was slow to open up, always glued to Lup like if they ever let go they would lose each other forever. It’s a sentiment that seems impossible now, considering all that’s happened, but given their upbringing, it wasn’t unexpected at the time. He came out of his shell soon enough, and they went from being “the twins” to being “Taako and Lup”.

You’re not one to go pointing fingers, though. You had been rather reserved in those early years, too. Especially around Taako and Lup, who made life and living seem so effortless.]

“Happy Candlenights, sister!” He says, smiling (It’s tense, you note for later, when you’re alone with your journals to record this because after all that’s happened, that’s your job). “Just whippin’ up a batch of Taako’s famous Elderflower Macarons~!”

His voice is teasing and melodious and he sets a plate of macarons on the counter in front of you. You take one, and it’s just as perfect and amazing as the first time you had one. And every time after that.

“It must have come early this year,” You say as coyly as you can around a mouthful of macaron.

[You’re not wrong., but you’re not complaining. You’ve accepted it as just another routine part of life between the planes. Most of the planes you’d visited hadn’t even celebrated Candlenights, and although you, Davenport, and Merle were content with that, Magnus’ killer pout (despite the hulking man that he is) had sent Taako (who is always ready to celebrate just about anything) into a spiral of planning the perfect Candlenights.

And wherever Taako went, Lup was sure to follow. And Barry after her.

Taako took it upon himself to organize their own Candlenights – a random day of his choosing where you would all eat good food ( _hell yeah, Taako’s breaking out the fancy recipes_ ), give each other shit presents, and take a break from research, _for one night you fucking giant nerds._ ]

Taako says he doesn’t know what you’re talking about with an ease that only the twins – no, only Taako – seems capable of. You don’t say anything, you know he knows you’re right. Your last Candlenights had been three months ago – well, 96 days ago, to be precise.

But time is different for you all. 96 days ago had still been in the last cycle. And considering what had happened…

You help yourself to another macaron. Maybe you all need another Candlenights.

[Part of you wishes that, after all this time, you knew how to talk to Taako. You could talk to Magnus – the big guy would cry into just about anyone’s shoulder so long as they’d let him. You and Davenport try to keep it professional, as you both are professionals, but there are lonely nights where you confide in each other like the old friends you have to accept that you’ve become. Merle has become an unexpected companion and Barry is open and honest with himself and with you. Lup is always ready to have “girl talks”, and you’re the only one on the ship that fits the bill. She won’t tell you what she tells Taako, but she’ll tell you more about them than he ever will.]

You don’t say anything. Not anything important, anyway. Instead: “Would you like any help making your cookies?”

And Taako laughs, kind of short and mean but you don’t feel offended. You’ve done this so many times by now, you can’t help but smile a bit to yourself, too. “Nice try, homie. Taako’s takin’ this one to the grave.”

“I'll get that recipe from you someday, Taako.”

His back is to you now, he’s piping icing onto some more cookies with a flourish, but you can hear his smile.  “Yeah, I’d like to see you try”

 

          The rest of the day was like any other Candlenights – it was special, of course, but not in the way it would have been if you had known what was going to happen. Magnus came crashing into the kitchen that morning as if he knew what Taako had planned, followed by a more leisurely Lup and Barry. Davenport poured his coffee like he always did and you passed him a macaron. Merle woke up about three hours into breakfast and you all spent the morning and a good way into the afternoon together before splitting up to your own whims. Taako, Lup, and Barry ran off somewhere. Magnus hung out in your room to talk to Fischer while you and Merle went on a walk. Davenport stayed with the ship as he was wont to do.

It was nice, and it was perfectly normal.

And that’s the last Candlenights you spend together for a very long time. Because the next cycle, Cycle 65, changes you. After an entire year of being alone on the Starblaster, learning to fly her, learning to repair her, learning because you have to or it’s the end of everything. The end of you. The end of your friends – your family. The end of Candlenights and Elderflower Macarons.

And by the time you escape – by some miracle, by some impossible work of God – you realize that some things are more important than Candlenights and Macarons. Your lives are more important than all that.

So one year passes, and for some reason you can’t explain but you find yourself thankful for, Taako doesn’t do anything, doesn’t bake anything, doesn’t say anything that would even suggest Candlenights. And no one says anything, and there’s something heartbreaking about it – the way not even Magnus nags about it anymore.

And you’re still close – bonds, after all, are required to keep the engine of the Starblaster going (although with Taako and Lup and Barry it will never run out of fuel, not like that damned year of yours on the run).

You think letting go of traditions is easier than you thought it would be.

You realize you were lying to yourself about that years later, when it’s just you, and Fischer and a Davenport that even he himself doesn’t recognize, and damn, you _knew_ what it felt like to alone. And this time you can only blame yourself .  

If only they had listened to you about those _fucking relics_.

You don’t know how you found yourself here, what feels like one hundred years later (though it’s only been about fifty), and its Candlenights, and you’re looking at the people that you’ve missed more than anything in all the planes. The people that you’ve wished to spend Candlenights with ever since Maureen suggested you throw a company party for sake of morale.

And Taako offers you an Elderflower Macaron.

And you ask how he does it – because it’s a habit that you refuse to shake, even fifty years later, and also those twenty years taken away from you by those monsters in Wonderland.  Even with the hundred that you took away from three men standing in front of you now.

And he says “The secret is to get the almonds ground down really fine before you try to, uh, make the cookie.”

And you realize that letting go is the hardest, most impossible thing you’ve ever had to do.


End file.
